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This study was based on an innovation project at the university level with English as a Foreign Language pre-service teachers. This experience was implemented with several language levels in different academic periods of the programme. The project aimed to apply a technological tool such as StoryboardThat, in contrast to the traditional pen-on-paper test, so that students could develop a zest for reading, allowing them to use it themselves and apply it in their teaching practices. After learning how to use the platform, they worked using a fiction novel assigned. In groups, they created three to six scenes summarizing one chapter and presented it to their peers. They stated that the project helped them improve their reading skills and inspired them to read more and use other similar platforms as an alternative in their future teaching practice. This pedagogical experience demonstrates that teachers foster a more positive attitude toward reading by integrating creativity into reading comprehension; it also equips pre-service teachers with practical tools and collaborative techniques they can apply in their future EFL teaching practice.

The development of lexical competence in foreign languages is one of the skills that presents difficulties in the teaching-learning process, as it requires stimulation and retention on the part of the student and creativity from the teacher. In this sense, digital resources emerge as a conducive means to promote new knowledge and consolidate acquired vocabulary. In this context, the present research aimed to determine if digital comics influence the development of lexical competence in English in virtual environments at the higher education level. Methodologically, an experimental design divided into three phases (pre-treatment, treatment, and post-treatment) took place with a sample of 60 students during the autumn of 2023. The results demonstrated an association between digital comics and lexical competence development variables, influencing lexicon acquisition, experiencing creativity, dynamism, and language involvement. Besides, comics supported by Canva, Makebeliefscomix, and Pixton applications contributed to students' cultural, linguistic, and communicative repertoire. Concurrently, users' confidence increased through gradual and systematic recovery, use, and inventive writing activities. Supports such as images, dialogues, characters, and colors encouraged the retrieval of words for subsequent use. In this way, the cognitive process of recall ceased to be merely memorising to transition to a level of long-term significant comprehension. In conclusion, digital comics were plausible for encouraging practical, flexible, and playful vocabulary improvement in a virtual environment.

The following article recommends Texas high school English teachers to select "All the Pretty Horses" (McCarthy, 1992), the critically acclaimed, best-selling novel by Cormac McCarthy, as a reading option for students. Set in rural Texas and Mexico, "All the Pretty Horses" provides an engaging reading experience that would likely connect to the lives of many Texas high school students. In addition to the rural setting and bilingual dialogues, the novel offers relatable teenage characters with diverse cultural, socioeconomic, and linguistic backgrounds similar to the diverse student populations in Texas schools. The novel also addresses developmentally appropriate themes including independence, identity, and career. Likewise, students with various reading levels will be able to comprehend the text. The present article discusses how "All the Pretty Horses" is an example of a relevant, accessible, and high-interest text for adolescents. In addition, the article provides high school teachers with suggestions for meaningful literacy activities that correspond to Boardman and colleagues' (2008) five central components of adolescent literacy.

Exploring the realm of literacy involves understanding how graphic novels shape students' reading and writing journeys. Through scholarly research, the authors delve into the significant impact of graphic novels on education while highlighting their appeal to students through visual features and engaging storytelling. Included is a discussion of lesson planning using eighth-grade English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR) Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) focused on exploring the role setting has on a character's motivations, values, and beliefs through the graphic novel "When Stars Are Scattered" by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed. This approach empowers students to become proficient readers and writers in today's visual society.

The Little Prince is among the most renowned French novels that have been translated into numerous languages. In English, there are several translations available. Each translator inevitably infuses their unique style into their translations. This study aims to investigate the styles of the translators exhibited in two English versions of this novel and to identify the differences in the approaches adopted by the two translators using a corpus-based method. The translations by Irene Testot-Ferry and T.V.F. Cuffe have been selected since they were both published in the same year by two prominent British publishers. The parallel model is adopted as the primary methodology. The results suggest that Irene Testot-Ferry's translation appears to be more oriented towards the source text. She tends to opt for English words that closely resemble their French counterparts, while T.V.F. Cuffe appears more independent in his word selection. Furthermore, T.V.F. Cuffe has a tendency to incorporate old-fashioned terms more frequently compared to Irene Testot-Ferry.

Purpose: The paper shows the interpretive impact of different constructions of the point of view available to the reader/viewer in book and animated movie versions of a children's picture book, a novel for pre-adolescents/early teenagers, and a graphic novel for adolescents and adults. Design/Approach/Methods: Excerpts from book and animated movie versions of the same story are compared using multimodal analysis of interpersonal meaning to show how the reader/viewer is positioned in relation to the characters in each version, complemented by analyses of ideational meaning to show the effect of point of view on interpretive possibilities. Findings: Focusing mainly on multimodal construction of point of view, the analyses show how interpretive possibilities of ostensibly the same story are significantly reconfigured in animated adaptations compared with book versions even when the verbal narrative remains substantially unchanged. Originality/Value: The study shows that it is crucial to students' critical appreciation of, and their creative contribution to, their evolving digital literary culture that in this new era of educational technology, attention in literacy and literary education focuses on developing understandings of digital multimodal narrative art, and that animated movie adaptations are not presented pedagogically as isomorphic with, or simply adjunct to, corresponding book versions.

Technological developments in various fields are the key to progress in the digital era. The utilization of technology-based learning media in education makes learning more interactive and supports independent learning. This study aims to develop and test the practicality and effectiveness of storyline-based nervous system e-comics media to support students' independent learning. This research uses the Research and Development (RnD) method with the Lee & Owen model, consisting of the analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation stages. The research was conducted with the subjects in this study, class XI MIPA SMA Negeri 2 Malang students, totalling 60 people. A pre-experimental design of one group pretest-posttest was used to test the effectiveness of the media. Data were collected through questionnaires and tests. The media validation results obtained 100%, material validation 100%, and student response results 98.7% in the class trial. The effectiveness test used a Pretest-Posttest Control Group Design. The results showed a significant difference between the posttest of both classes with Sig. (2-tailed) 0.00 <0.05, there is a significant difference between the control and experimental classes. Storylinebased nerve e-comic media can facilitate independent learning more interestingly and interactively.

This comparative study looks into the image of the wolf in Genghis Aitmatov's "Plakha" and Jack London's "White Fang." For this purpose, first, the concept of the wolf in fiction is discussed, and the representation of wolves in these two texts is analyzed. This study explores the relationship between wolves and human beings as expressed in the texts in a way that helps understand the image of the wolf with specific cultural beliefs and practices that find aspirations in the text mentioned. The study concludes that Aitmatov associates Kazakh people with the wolf, unlike London's wolf, whose existence does not center around issues of freedom and independence.

In order to identify the acquisitions foreseen for middle school children in the book "Iz Pesinde" (In Pursuit of the Trail) in Mavisel Yener's "Dolunay Dedektifleri" (Full Moon Detectives) series, this study was conducted. The study sample is composed of the author's book "Iz Pesinde". Sub problems, assumptions, the importance and purpose of the research were included in the study. The work examined in this study, in which qualitative research method was used, was analyzed using descriptive analysis method. Based on this analysis, the work was read, examined, labeled, classified, and then associated with the acquisitions determined for middle school students in the Turkish Language Course (Grades 1-8) Curriculum (2019). It was concluded that Mavisel Yener's "Iz Pesinde" includes examples that match the learning outcomes in the Turkish Language Course (Grades 1-8) Curriculum. Therefore, it is believed that this work written in the field of children's literature is appropriate for the curriculum and can be used as a material in Turkish Language courses.

In early 2021, the Schusterman Library at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa satellite campus took a new step towards building a culture of interest by creating the Graphic Scholarship Collection. This new endeavor is a curated collection of graphic novels, primarily non-fiction, aligned with the academic programs on campus, as well as promoting University initiatives in diversity, equity, and inclusion. A new organizational structure for the collection materials and their circulation metrics will be examined in detail. There will also be consideration of the challenges of selection and acquisition by a mixed team of selectors, some of whom have no experience with graphic novels and who have to resolve contradictions between the new and existing library collections. New graphic scholarship initiatives and faculty-library partnerships will be explored. In addition to developing workshops and other learning activities around the collection, the library is partnering with campus faculty in creating original course content. The collection's development has already had an impact by building and strengthening bonds across the campus, and it aims to mirror the growth of the University community.

Drawing from the literature and the historical fiction-based feminist antimilitarist research I conducted in writing my debut novel, "A Sea of Spectres." This article discusses the what and why of fiction-based research. I detail how to: (a) move from inspiration to fiction-based research; (b) frame the research; (c) develop research questions; (d) and embed theory and data in the story through applying the craft of fiction writing. My aim with fiction-based research is to create compelling characters situated in historical and contemporary settings in order to draw readers into engaging and accessible stories that help them learn about themselves, their understandings of others, and their relationships to society. I conclude with recommendations for conducting fiction-based research; delve into the methodology of fiction-based research; study the craft of writing fiction; read in related genre(s); abide by the ethics of fiction and fiction-based research; and learn about the fiction publishing process.

This paper focuses on integrating multimodal communication into the English-as-a-foreign-language classroom to enhance the development of students' multimodal communicative competence, multiliteracies, and 21st-century skills. To do so, I compiled a corpus of authentic materials from Lady Whistledown's Society Papers in Julia Quinn's novel "The Viscount Who Loved Me" (2000), her appearances as narrator in the Netflix series "Bridgerton" (2022), and some tweets posted by @Bridgerton. This corpus was used to plan and design a game-based teaching proposal. Finally, the paper offers a critical analysis and suggests how this proposal can feasibly contribute to fostering students' multimodal communicative competence.

Multicultural education is expected to improve the frameworks of educational institutions so that students from various ethnic, racial, cultural, and linguistic groups have equal academic accomplishment possibilities. It is essential for English as a foreign language (EFL) learners and teachers in Indonesia since English has its own culture. This research aims to comprehend the practices of multiliteracies in incorporating multicultural education in extensive reading classes. This investigation used a qualitative case study using observation and in-depth interviews to collect data from the lecturer. The results showed that the lecturer incorporated all aspects of multicultural education in multiliteracies practices using a novel. While generating cultural value from students' life experiences, the researchers discovered content integration, knowledge scaffolding, equity pedagogy, bias degradation, and empowerment of school culture. Multiliteracies practices can serve as an innovative teaching technique to promote multicultural education. Additionally, EFL lecturers need multicultural learning materials to support this and to encourage students to think critically.

This research investigated the impact popular novels have on knowledge about and attitudes towards Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), compared to that of traditional college textbooks. Study 1 found that participants in the novel condition chose fewer correct and fewer incorrect responses to questions about ASD. Participants did not differ in their desired social distance from individuals with ASD. Study 2 found that participants in the novel and textbook conditions both showed the same amount of learning, with higher scores on the post-test assessment of knowledge than the pre-test. Participants in the novel condition showed significant improvement in their attitudes towards individuals with ASD after reading, while those in the textbook condition showed more negative attitudes after reading the textbook chapter. These findings add to our understanding of the potential of popular fiction to impact consumers' knowledge about ASD while improving our attitudes towards individuals with ASD. These findings also raise concerns about traditional educational material used to teach about ASD.

Calvino's apology of multiplicity starts with the exposure, revealed by his take on typically modern novels, of some fundamental contradictions underlaying the modern quest for knowledge, which are definitely not alien to our day education. Then, when Calvino goes on to explore how twentieth century literature transcended those difficulties, he provides us with a valuable inspiration for how education could cope with its ambiguous relation to knowledge, still deeply rooted in the modern approach. Guided by Calvino's readings, we are shown that literature can succeed in its epistemological (r)evolution. Meanwhile, education, as it seems, is still struggling to overcome its entanglement with the unreachable goal of teaching everything about everything, to cope with the infinity and complexity of that everything, making reflecting upon education's epistemological stance in the twenty-first century very much a necessity, one that I will try to pursue in the following pages After a methodological introduction, the paper starts by placing Calvino's examination of beautiful, yet unsuccessful literary attempts at an exhaustive account of the world in the context of education, to show how their unattainable ambitions are mirrored in pedagogical practice, pointing out to the "modern spirit" underlying both the aforementioned novels' and contemporary education's relation to knowledge. Then, with the help of J. Rancière's take on education, I will try and make educational sense of Calvino's account of Bouvard and Pécuchet failed quest to know everything there is to be known, and relate it to the particular model of knowledge at work in education, one that needs to be questioned. Finally, I will draw on Calvino's praise of "the contemporary novel as (…) a method of knowledge" (SM, p. 105), and particularly on his analysis of Perec's masterpiece La Vie mode d'emploi, and his rehabilitation of the idea of arbitrariness, to outline some reflections about how an educational multiplicity, where "everything is in everything" could come to life (Rancière, 1991, p. 26).

Book banning and censorship in the U.S. prompts necessary conversations on how critical literacy, dialogue, and inquiry are used in various school and library settings. We share guiding questions alongside three examples of textual analyses centering on gender fluidity with three young adult novels. We believe that English language arts teachers will benefit from seeing examples of how we responded to these texts with critical analysis questions that require students to analyze gender representation and identity within the stories. By developing an empathic analysis, students can engage in this critical work within classrooms and libraries, where reading diverse texts is encouraged.

I use Toni Morrison's "Paradise" as a backdrop for framing a "Black Liberatory Fantasy" (Martin et al., 2019) that is rooted in what Dumas and ross ("Urban Education," 51(4):415-442, 2016) have conceptualized as BlackCrit. The goal of the current undertaking is to evaluate anecdotes of this working idea of paradise, to merge it with more refined ones, and to dream even bigger about what paradise could look like for Black students in mathematics spaces. It is with this backdrop that I proffer how to fashion a Black liberatory mathematics education (BLiME), my conception of paradise, where Black students are expected to exist in their full humanity. I offer up five characteristics that inform the BLiME framework and are an extension of Morrison's (2019) writings on paradise: beauty, plenty, rest, exclusivity, and eternity. I contend that Ruby, Morrison's town in "Paradise," had elements of these characteristics, but here, BLiME reimagines mathematics education as a full embodiment of what Ruby had the "potential" to be.

Drawing on feminist and critical theories of politics and emotions, this paper attends to the hegemony of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) for multiply-marginalized students and explores what exemplary Young Adult (YA) novels can teach scholars, educators, and students about the productive use of anger in the face of injustice. Two acclaimed young adult novels are examined using Critical Content Analysis to illustrate the potential for using such books to critically discuss what anger "does" in the face of injustice related to race and gender.

This article examines how sociocultural perspectives that recognize literacy as language use in context is played out in novel-based learning of four English as a Foreign Language (EFL) junior high classrooms taught by one teacher. The study is teacher-research centered around the classroom practices and student writings of the first author's junior high grade 2 classes from 2013-15. Member-checking conducted in 2020-21 with former students triangulated and enriched the data in ways unique to educational research. Findings trace how the first author's classroom activities helped students recognize literacy as the contextualized use of language that connected English to their lives in localized and critical ways.

In January 2021 the author read "Hey, Kiddo" by Jarrett Krosoczka. The author connected on so many levels with this graphic novel memoir, and knew that it would speak to their students, as well. Krosoczka not only wrote "Hey, Kiddo," but he illustrated it, as well. The author states they knew the healing impact a book could have when a reader connected with characters, events, or themes. The author's high school houses the district's arts magnet school, and since the Inspire Grant proposal had an art focus, they reached out to the director of the magnet program. The author shared their ideas for working with the magnet classes to connect with students to participate in what would eventually become a multilayered event. The program was voluntary, and they ended up with approximately eighty students choosing to participate. The premise behind the grant was for students to know they weren't alone and to provide them with outlets for healing. The graphic novel format removed a literacy barrier and made the book accessible to students at many reading levels throughout the school. Once the books were delivered to students, small-group sessions with counselors were scheduled to take place two weeks out, allowing students time to read the book. Copies of the book were supplied to the school counselors, as well. The goal of the small groups was to provide students a safe place to discuss the emotional story and to process feelings and personal connections that arose from their reading. The grant also included a school visit with goats. Students of all grade levels, social groups, and ability levels sat side by side with staff to pet and groom the different animals. According to the author, they were one community healing together.

Issues surrounding gender and sexuality are fundamental determinants of either a liberated or restricted human experience, and comprehensive sex education has been recognized as an essential mechanism to help youth process their gender and sexuality in a standardized, open, safe, and healthy atmosphere. In the absence of such education, Y novels are a growing source of cultural resources in the social sphere of sexuality, especially among Thai girls and young women. The present study differentiated between and analyzed the sexual scripts engaged in by the two leading characters, the "pra'ek" and "nai'ek," in scenes of erotic significance from nine such novels. The dialogue and narration from these scenes were analyzed descriptively, and clear patterns of asymmetry emerged. These patterns were discussed as manifestations of heteronormative discourses. Y novels, despite the same-sex relationships that define them, were found to re-produce heteronormative discourses around masculinity and femininity. While Y novels may be an avenue for girls and women to explore their own sexuality in the heteronormative context in which they find themselves, the genre may also endanger girls, women, and queer-identifying people by re-producing meaning making that defines a 'gray area' of consent in sexual encounters.

Following Richards's (2015) ideas of using movie clips, videos, and games as valuable technological tools for language learning, the present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of using novel extracts and computer game cutscenes based on the same story to develop the vocabulary knowledge of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. The study employed a quasi-experimental design with a control group and an experimental group. Initially, both groups studied a target vocabulary list of 20 words and their definitions. The participants were asked to complete a multiple-choice definition matching test after studying the list to find out whether their levels of vocabulary knowledge were comparable prior to the applications. For the experimental group, a second vocabulary test equivalent to the first one was conducted after they read a novel extract including the target vocabulary items, and a third test was carried out after they watched two computer game cutscenes that were based on the same events as the novel extract to understand whether seeing the target vocabulary items in these contexts repetitively would result in a significant increase in their target vocabulary knowledge. For the control group, the second and the third vocabulary tests were undertaken immediately after the first one to investigate whether mere exposure to equivalent vocabulary tests without the interventions would lead to a significant increase in their target vocabulary knowledge. The findings of the study indicated that the scores of the participants in the experimental group increased descriptively on the second test and significantly on the third test, whereas the scores of the participants in the control group decreased significantly on the second test and descriptively on the third test. The study provides practical and academic implications based on the findings.

Personal experiences, previous school life, teachers in their close environment, cultural and sociological dynamics in society, and books and movies are some of the factors in the research area of the teaching profession affecting pre-service teachers' views. Turkish Language pre-service teachers are supposed to deal with literate texts as the requirement of their field. The current research aims to examine how Turkish language pre-service teachers perceive teaching as a profession through their evaluation of The Wren by Resat Nuri Güntekin, which has been representing the role model and idealist teacher for so long in Turkey. Designed as a qualitative study, the data was gathered from the senior students attending in Turkish Language Education Department at Pamukkale University in two phases in the 2021-2022 academic year. Results suggest a close association between what pre-service teachers think about "being a teacher" and how they perceive themselves as teachers. Results also suggest that pre-service teachers idealized a good teacher and take attention to the forming and guiding function of the teacher. Pre-service teachers do not perceive Feride as an ideal teacher and cannot imagine her as their colleague however she is strongly coherent with their profile of a good teacher.

Asian American Rhetoric and Representation was a graduate-level course taught at Virginia Tech in 2019. The course overviewed disciplinary conversations and concerns in and around Asian American rhetorical studies over time, with a focus on the affordances of Asian American rhetorical theory for the study of rhetoric and writing more broadly. Understanding that established disciplinary and formal/genre divisions within academia are often the result of Eurowestern canonical and institutional histories, the course included readings from varied fields. Jennifer Sano-Franchini and her students e discussed academic scholarship in ancient and contemporary rhetoric and writing studies, Asian American studies, Asian American literature, and Asian philosophy alongside literary and artistic works. In addition, students dialogued with virtual guest speakers in the field. This article describes the course and reflects of what Asian American rhetoric can contribute to the study of rhetoric and writing.

This study examined written/formal register based on happilyever-after women's fiction conventional blurbs. In particular, the 80 blurbs were equally divided into two types: the classic and mass-marketed. Biber et al. (2021) was used as the framework to extract features to respond to the two research questions: What were the top written/formal features among the classic and mass-marketed happily-ever-after women's novel blurbs? And, which blurb type displayed more resemblance to written/formal register? The functional framework comprised three main groups of features: The passives, adjectivals and adverbials. Results revealed that the first two showed a strong tendency towards written/formal register while the last seemed to show the opposite but was taken here to be in-between features, corresponding to fiction language. The top written/formal features based on the two types of blurbs were the passives (both the full and reduced forms) (26%), full relative clauses (23%), full adverbial clauses (20%) and attributives (13%). The blurb type that seemed inclined towards written/formal nature more was the classic, as substantiated by five salient features: the passives, attributives, -en adjectivals, -ing adverbials and -en adverbials. It is believed that discourse analysts and ESL/EFL teachers can pay more attention to these useful syntactic features, particularly the full and reduced forms, as ways to compress information in formal writing.

The graphic novel "Invisible" (2022) by Christina Diaz Gonzalez and Gabriela Epstein demonstrates that adolescents can create a positive difference in the world and build friendships with people different from themselves. The novel's themes, nonlinear chronology, and innovative bilingual format make "Invisible" significant and linguistically inclusive. In this "Breakfast Club" (Hughes, 1985) remix, five eighth-grade students with Latina/o heritage grow to know one another and themselves through service hours. English Language Arts teachers can cover ELAR TEKS with "Invisible." Suggested strategies include author study, process drama, cultural x-rays, writing prompts, videos about language, and family interviews. Gonzalez and Epstein's empowering and engaging narrative, told in English and Spanish, merits academic study and a place in required or independent reading.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began to affect in-person schooling, teachers around the world expressed a balance of optimism for new possibilities in instruction along with trepidation at the challenges which lay ahead. Shortly after March 2020 and into the 2021 school year, even 2022 for some, remote instruction became the norm for many educators. As the pandemic persisted, the optimism teachers first exhibited began to wane considerably as several challenges to student access arose. These issues (e.g., Internet connectivity, crowded living spaces becoming workspaces, children and adults simultaneously working at home, etc.) pose significant threats to equity in education, and they ironically become troublesome in courses whose objectives include analyzing and discussing inequity in education. This article presents a modified retelling of an end-of-course discussion between a graduate student and his adviser after they spent a semester co-teaching in a remote setting. The dialogue includes positive moments of instruction as well as recognized challenges to equity. The article concludes with suggestions for further research on synchronous remote instruction.

Disrupting the canon of Eurocentric literature often used as a whole-class novel study in the secondary English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum is needed in order to push back against white hegemony in and out of ELA spaces. This disruption needs to occur at the teacher preparation level through discussion, examination, and curriculum development, including contested and nostalgia-laden texts such as Harper Lee's (1960) "To Kill a Mockingbird" (TKAM). In this paper, we draw on Sealey-Ruiz's (2019) concept of the archaeology of the self, Vygotskian perspectives on literacy instruction (Lee & Smagorinsky, 2000), and the gradual release of responsibility in teaching and learning to interrogate the metaphor of the "grasp" that the canon has on the ELA community. We examine the epistemological shifts and evolutions between a preservice ELA teacher and an ELA teacher educator in a two-year study that focused on developing Culturally Sustaining Literacy Pedagogy (Paris, 2012; Paris & Alim, 2017) aiming to disrupt the teaching of TKAM. We found that releasing ourselves from the canonical grasp of TKAM, placing it not as a centered novel, but as a literary artifact, was imperative in disrupting our own whiteness and developing culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining critical literacy instruction surrounding themes of present-day racism and (in)justice.

As we enter a new age of technological innovation and subsequent educational instrumentation change, there is increasing demand for innovative methods that encourage student learning experiences in virtual, online spaces. ePortfolios and e-book projects are designed and owned by students and are centered within the student's learning. They provide a structured, online space for students to learn new technological skills while intentionally integrating it with their learning experience. We have utilized the content creation platform Pressbooks for our student learners to develop and create their "e-Book of One's Own" (eBoOO). A simplified derivation of the "Domain of One's Own" (DoOO) philosophy, our intention with eBoOO was to address the high bar for digital literacy required to get started while staying true to the embodied ideology of Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own."

Traditional narratives of sport posit winning as the defining goal in ways that can feel and be exclusionary to young people and result in a lack of enjoyment and subsequent decision to avoid or discontinue involvement in sport. This is particularly true for girls and young women who participate in sport at lower rates and quit at higher rates than boys and young men. Shifting the focus of sport away from winning can open space for a wider range of girls and young women to see themselves as athletes. Scholars have highlighted how story in the form of counter-narratives can play a role in changing readers' perspectives. However, no attention has been paid to fictional representations of athletes engaging in non-competitive sport and how these depictions might invite girls and young women to imagine themselves differently in sporting spaces. This paper employs thematic inductive analysis to examine three, girl-centric young adult sports novels that work as counter-narratives to examine what happens when winning is not the central goal of participation in sport. Specifically, it explores what fictional young women athletes gain through their participation in non-competitive sport and what young adult readers might gain in their engagement with these titles. Findings reveal how participation in non-competitive sport gives the fictional athletes a sense of full personhood, confidence and pride in what their bodies can do, and connection with something larger than themselves. These titles can show readers that their engagement in sport is "desirable," that non-competitive sport is beneficial to "them," and that their engagement in sport is possible, that non-competitive sport is "for them." The paper suggests that stories of non-competitive sport have the potential to open equitable access by inviting more young people, particularly those who have not seen themselves in stories of sport, to engage as athletes.

This article is about what the future of reading looks like. Currently many districts across the country--including New York City--are adopting research-based methods called the science of reading that focus on mechanics. Leanne Ellis surmises the future of reading holds great promise if school librarians can promote, showcase, and advocate for a reading culture that is multimodal, multidimensional, and free of judgment. As educators, they speak about learners needing tiered interventions to support their learning; the same holds for creating lifelong readers--they need a tiered approach with format, fiction, misinformation, and artificial intelligence (AI) to engage and ignite learner passion for words, ideas, and inquiry.

The story of American superheroes cannot be told without the publisher DC and its evolving audience. During the latter 1930s and early 1940s, DC Comics assembled a catalog of superheroes that became the archetype of the genre itself: Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman. As DC Comics' audience and market grew throughout the decades, the company's understanding of its readership expanded to include readers of color. Originally conceived as DC Zoom in 2018, the imprint was meant to create superhero narratives written for young audiences. In 2020, DC Zoom reorganized and bifurcated its products into two streams: DC Graphic Novels for Kids and DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults. The former is geared toward upper elementary students, while the latter is geared toward middle and high school audiences. The DC Graphic Novels for Kids imprint redresses the original narrative exclusion of DC Comics by centering new, young heroes of color alongside white superheroes. Importantly, these younger heroes of color are written by comic writers of color, which marks a departure from the historical origins of some of the most popular superheroes of color. In this article, the authors construct a critical race content analysis of DC Graphic Novels for Kids that feature characters of color to engage in that inquiry. Tensions and changes within superhero comic books frequently mirror larger sociopolitical shifts in the United States. Similar to reading children's literature, the consumption and engagement with graphic novels cannot be severed from the sociopolitical contexts in which such actions take place. This tradition of engagement continues to the modern day with DC Comics. A tension exists between narratives that ignore discussions of race and racism and literary moves that work as racialized characterization.

We advocate for the reading of young adult literature (YAL) as a means for justice-oriented education, and we also recognize how the recent surge in challenges to youth-centered texts in the U.S. attempts to limit such work in classrooms. In response, we wondered about the ways in which YAL offers pathways for critically framing and situating global concerns, such as censorship, in time and space as a means of entering public conversations on issues. In this article, we offer waypoints as a critical reading framework for approaching sociopolitical issues in YAL as gateways for shifts in perspectives, orientations, and actions towards justice. We argue that such a framework for approaching YAL can help further unravel the social issues critical literacy aims to name and act on by locating topics in relation to politics and power.

This paper aims to conduct an in-depth analysis of studies on the relationship between reading and writing skills and digital literacy at the K-12 level, following the PRISMA statement. The analysis included examining subjects, aims, digital materials, methodologies, and learning outcomes of relevant studies. Data were collected from the Web of Science database based on specified inclusion criteria. In total, 23 empirical studies were analyzed: 6 articles exploring the relationship between writing and digital literacy skills, and 17 articles examining the relationship between reading and digital literacy skills. The relationship between reading skills and digital literacy was explored in several contexts: the impact of digital texts on reading processes, comprehension and interpretation skills, effects of digital technologies on traditional reading methods, the influence of digital graphic novels on reading processes, and early literacy education. Findings indicated a relationship between writing skills and digital literacy, covering topics such as digital technologies in traditional writing, critical discourse analysis, writing skills in new media, and writing practices. Various digital tools were employed to enhance reading, writing, and digital literacy skills, including digital tablets, computer software, comics, educational videos, e-books, picture books, digital novels, voice recorders, and mobile devices. The majority of studies utilized qualitative and mixed methods; no studies employed quantitative methods. Overall, these findings highlight the interplay between reading, writing, and digital literacy skills at the K-12 level, providing a foundation for future research.

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how narrative is constructed to create connections with fat readers, how books function to envision spaces of fat liberation for young readers and to highlight the incredible importance of providing bigger mirrors (Bishop, 1990) for fat representation in children's literature. Design/methodology/approach: This paper analyzes and reflects on two texts that contain counternarratives of fatness: The (Other) F Word: A celebration of the fat and fierce edited by Angie Manfredi (2019) and Big by Vashti Harrison (2023) to interrogate how these two narratives intentionally disrupt anti-fat bias. Findings: Body size and fatness are identities that need to be included in diversity efforts within education. Books like The (Other) F Word: A celebration of the fat and fierce (Manfredi, 2019) and Big (Harrison, 2023) offer positive representations of fatness, disrupt biases around body size and provide spaces that allow fat students to find joy, hope, connection and, more than anything, imagine a way toward liberation. Research limitations/implications: This paper highlights the need to include more narratives of positive fat representation within children's literature and calls for educators to interrogate their own anti-fat biases and practices. Originality/value: There is a lack of research on fat representation specifically within children and young adult literature. This paper provides an analysis of two pieces of literature with fat representation that brings attention to the need for this type of future research.

This article highlights how Wolfgang Herrndorf's bestselling novel "Tschick" (2010) is particularly well suited for advanced courses focused on cultural and linguistic enrichment. Herrndorf's "Tschick," I argue, facilitates interaction, engagement, and individual interpretation; is linguistically accessible because of its use of high-frequency vocabulary and conceptual orality; and can motivate students to be more active and engaged class participants. The article introduces the novel and describes the advanced college course in which it is taught. It then outlines readability factors and discusses their implication for the teaching of "Tschick," providing sample teaching ideas that consider the linguistic ability of the advanced language learner as well as broader professional objectives.

In many parts of the world, researchers and policymakers alike report possible threats to democracy and its institutions. Accounts in the media of hatred and threats aimed at people taking part in public discourse, and of a polarized political debate, raise general questions about the current state and future of democratic dialogue and processes. Solutions are sought, by both research and policy, in the educational context. Some researchers have turned to the agonistic theory proposed by Chantal Mouffe, highlighting the democratic role of conflict and dissent. Empirical research on agonism in education is, however, scarce. In this article, we explore agonistic democratic theory in educational practice, more precisely in a conversation about a literary classic in an upper-secondary Swedish L1 classroom. Based on the analysis of data generated through a teacher-researcher collaboration, we propose six didactic conditions that are fruitful for what we call agonistic literary discussions. Contributing to the debate on how education could meet a possible threat to democracy, we argue that an agonistic approach is a productive path. This approach views democracy as an ongoing process, and it views the classroom as a place where the meaning of democracy can be negotiated.

This article interrogates the role of retrieval practices in an urban, multicultural London classroom. With the advent of cognitive science-based approaches in recent years, retrieval has become a central tenet for testing foundational knowledge in English literature. I consider the implications of retrieval for classroom discourses concerning feeling, experience and aesthetics. I ask whether it is possible to conceptualise 'retrieval' differently to encompass the funds of knowledge offered by our students and contexts that lie beyond the classroom.

This research analyzes the educational philosophy of progressivism and humanism in Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's Totto-Chan Novel and its relevance to the Independent Curriculum in Indonesia. This study uses qualitative content analysis to reveal the progressive and humanistic educational philosophy in Totto-Chan and its relevance to the Merdeka Curriculum in Indonesia. The research involves reading the novel, extracting relevant texts, categorizing them by topics, and analyzing the relationship between these philosophies and the curriculum then the findings, detailed in a comprehensive manner, highlight indicators of progressive and humanistic educational philosophies. This research aims to identify parallels between the Merdeka Curriculum and progressivism and humanism in the Totto-Chan novel to assess the suitability and potential integration of educational philosophies. The result showed that Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's Totto-Chan novel intensely reveals the progressive and humanistic educational philosophy at Tomoe Gakuen. The school prioritizes independent learning goals, equality, justice, self-reflection, environmental connection, and shared decision-making. Principal Mr. Kobayashi educate students' independence based on interests and talents. This aligns with the Merdeka Curriculum in Indonesia, which emphasized meaningful learning design for students' independence, equality, self-reflection, environmental connection, and democratic learning principles through the concept of Merdeka Belajar in the learning process. This implication can serve as a practical learning idea for educators, fostering harmony in educational philosophy and enhancing the implementation of the recently introduced Merdeka Curriculum in Indonesia.

This article explores the use of artificial stuttering as a powerful practice and therapy in higher education in Palestine where the need for applied drama is increasing. It specifically focuses on the artistic and/or performative reemployment of Charles Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby" to enhance the academic achievement and social development of dysfluent students throughout and beyond their university education. By using extra-curricular, art-mediated training and in-class performance of chosen passages from Dickens's narrative, students not only improve their linguistic and intellectual competencies but also develop dynamic confidence to articulate themselves in daily social contexts during self-presentation. This academic practice, which is part of a one-term educational disability programme, focuses on training a selected number of undergraduate students with a severe or mild stutter by relying on the technique of artificial impersonation of the stuttering of Smike, who is one of the most common Victorian dysfluent characters, in different melodramatic acts. In this experience, students show linguistic growth and social command of communication, and thus chart a new subjective identity.

'Diaspora' is a term that has undergone transformation throughout history. In its original sense, it referred to the Jewish population residing outside of their native land in Palestine. In its current usage, it encompasses any dispersion of people or linguistic and cultural phenomena originating from a localized source. The transnational narrative of Gun Island parallels the dispersion of both human and non-human animals caused by human-induced climate change. Humans migrate for various reasons, including environmental factors and economic opportunities, while non-human animals migrate solely due to pervasive climate change in the Anthropocene. This study argues that the novel invites readers to rethink the global perspective of diaspora from a more inclusive and ecological standpoint, recognizing that nonhuman animals also exhibit some features common to human diaspora groups. Examples include displacement from original habitats, encountering challenges in new environments, and bearing cultural or ecological relevance for source regions.

This qualitative study highlights how children's literature can serve as a springboard for discussing current events while making connections with a similar historical event. Undergraduate students enrolled in children's literature courses read the graphic novel "Fever Year: The Killer Flu of 1918" and discussed the parallels between the book and the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings indicate strong text-to-self and text-to-world connections between the events of the flu of 1918 highlighted in the graphic novel and those of the COVID-19 pandemic. Connections included restrictions and closures, mask mandates, vaccine development, medical theories, and theories of spread. Information dissemination and consumption was a prominent theme.

Student engagement in the process of transduction concomitantly affords them with opportunities to develop and express their critical and creative thinking competences. Reconfiguring or remaking knowledge or meaning in modes other than those of the original sources of information requires affective, imaginative and cognitive activity by sign-makers. In this article, I present examples of elementary students' transduction work and discuss their semiotic meaning-making with reference to the concepts of critical and creative thinking. During the study featured in this article, Grade 4 students engaged in the process of transduction when participating in activities about elements of visual art and design and conventions of the medium comics, when exploring picturebooks and graphic novels and when composing and explaining their own multimodal texts. The students' transmodal meaning-making showed how, in the context of the research classrooms, the purposefully designed pedagogy and activities both required and nurtured students' critical and creative thinking, which simultaneously provided the students with opportunities to extend their knowledge and deepen their understandings of the concepts and curriculum content under study.